Not that you have loads of reading time or anything. And not like a report titled Family Values at Work: It’s About Time would, say, make you put down your Wonder Time or Brain, Child magazine (or The New Yorker if you didn’t cancel it like I did to prevent the 3-foot high bedside pile-up!).
That said, you really oughta read it!! It was just published by a group with the inspiring name MultiState Working Families Consortium (eight forward-thinking states - yours?). And it’s all there. The whole conundrum: The problems with caring for sick children, the embarrassing state of maternity leave in our country, the lack of workplace flexibility, the fact that U.S. policies haven’t adjusted to the fact that June Cleaver took her apron off and has a corner office now, and on and on.
An overview of the report should lure you in:
“Family Values at Work” documents the consequences on workers, families, businesses and the nation when family values end at the workplace door. The document details the wrenching stories of workers suffering from the lack of family-friendly work rules, summarizes key research, and lays out a policy agenda modest compared to that of other advanced nations yet urgently needed by U.S. workers and their families. These policies include a minimum number of paid sick days for routine illnesses as well as a family leave insurance fund to provide income during longer-term leaves for a new baby or serious health condition.
Most importantly, mamas, the report defines a minimum standard for workplace flexibility with four priority recommendations. And our favorite part, it includes a report summary for those who like it short and sweet - oh, right, that’s all of us!
As the report says in conclusion: If we believe in family values, it’s time to value families. And as I’ve said many times before in my life (so eloquently): Ye-ha!
Hear what else Lisa has to say about our country’s dreadful public policies for families & her random efforts to improve them at Activistas.
